5e: Love’s Labor Lost

It’s been a little over a month and a half, and I’ve missed a lot of sleep since the end of July–so what I describe here is only… part of the story. I missed my chance to record it while it was still fresh, and it was a pretty eventful evening besides.

September 1st, 5e D&D game session: “Love’s Labor Lost”
The party had scarcely dispatched Juiblex (technically, it had been four weeks, but it didn’t feel like that long), and Dox was raring to conclude his quest to slay the drow demigod and free the Lady of the Well.

After seeking out a beholder’s central eye to brew a potion capable of concealing the party from the demigod’s destiny-vision (no one questioned this, so I didn’t bother to explain it), the party slipped into the drow city.

Hania (the pixie fighter) posed as a necromancer (with her spooky skeleton arm), and rode in a sedan chair mounted atop a zombie–the party claimed to be an evil adventuring party, selling their services as mercenaries.

Presenting themselves to the Arcanaloth “recruiter” in charge of rebuilding the demigod’s forces, the party bribed the greedy demon into granting them an audience with the head man himself. And thus the wheels of fate were greased.

The heroes then presented themselves to the demigod, who failed to recognize them (magic potion being what it was), and they were telepathically addressed by an ultroloth who more readily saw through their ruse.

Following a short negotiation with the yugoloth, they were left alone with the demigod and a handful of retainers, where the heroes surreptitiously slipped the demigod a “potion of shrinking” and proceeded to whomp him good.

Even the zombie sedan-bearer got in a hit. He did like, 3 damage.

Upon the demigod’s death, spiders began pouring out–then some giant, chitinous legs grew out of him–followed shortly thereafter by Lolth (presumably) as she clawed her way out of her mostly-dead, semi-divine progeny. (Now all dead.)

The Spider Queen then promptly departed for parts unknown–well, somewhere else in the Underdark. Obviously.

Allandra, who had sought out a connection to the Infinite Staircase, ushered the party out and away, back to the Feywild to meetup with the Lady of the Well. The party left behind a dangerously divided Underdark–with numerous demon lords on the loose.

When the party arrived at the White Well, Dox was met with a somewhat chilly reception. Selphara, the Bramble Queen and the Prince of Hearts awaited his return as well, alongside the Lady of the Well. Dox related a… rushed version of his recent adventures, after which the Lady surprised him with some “happy news.” She brought in two children, announcing they were his.

Dox… disagreed.

The Prince of Hearts stepped forward, and accused Dox of emotional infidelity–revealing that he had shadowed the adventuring party, recording events magically, and argued that Dox had fallen in love with his fellow adventuring companion, Emily.

Dox countered by accusing the Prince of Hearts with seducing the Lady of the Well, to which he replied that while he sought to unite the hearts of others, he had never in his immortal faerie life, had a love of his own.

The mood thus soured, the Bramble Queen took Dox into her confidence and revealed that she had engaged the Prince of Hearts to ruin Dox’s fairy tale romance–and seeing him “unperturbed” by the events, endeavored to take from him everything that he held dear… revealing further that she had infiltrated Ravenscar with magical roots and would forcibly draw the town into the Feywild.

At the last moment, Morrigan (formerly the Raven Queen) contacted Dox to ask if Ravenscar was truly devoted to her. He replied an affirmative (like there was ever any doubt), and she interceded to “rescue” Ravenscar from the Bramble Queen’s clutches.

While Ravenscar was inevitably drawn into the Feywild, it became the demesne of Morrigan–not Selphara–giving her a foothold in the Feywild and enabling her transition from realm-less demon lord to minor archfey.

And with the Bramble Queen’s efforts (somewhat) thwarted, we ended the campaign.